Diversity Grant

Today has been a crazy and hectic day, but the most notable work event was a meeting Gary & I had with a 4-H leader, Nina, about the Diversity Grant we received last fall. We met to discuss the event we had proposed in our grant narrative, which was a multi-day cultural symposium for 4-H members. However, since we didn't receive as much funding as we requested we had to figure a way to cut back but still provide an educative program.

To be honest, I didn't really want to go to this meeting. I've been disenchanted with my internship as of late, and this just seemed like one more thing we had to do that didn't really related to my capstone (topic wise it relates to my education, event wise it doesn't relate to what I am focusing on). However, I'm really glad I went. The brainstorming meeting between Nina, Gary, and myself was amazing! It reminded me of my days of summer camp planning with the other interns at St. Marks!

We broke down how much we wanted to accomplish versus how much we had in resources. We defined our PGOs (Purpose, Goals, & Objectives), we narrowed down our audience, we discussed the pros and cons to different structured activities (I even pulled out some Training Design for Experiential Learning activity suggestions), discussed possible speakers and foci, and decided on dates and venues. Very productive! But the number one thing that I thought set this meeting above numerous others I've sat through during my tenure in Hawaii was that we decided to have another planning meeting to nail out specifics that will include a portion of our intended audience in the planning as a form of needs assessment! (let the hallelujah chorus sing!)

I felt so good after that meeting. I'm kind of wondering if I should change my practicum to be about the process of this event... but that would me a really complicated Human Subjects Review. Hmmmm... decisions, decisions.